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Educational booklet promotes healthy animals

Posted May 15, 2006

Mixed and large animal practitioners who interact with agriculture-related programs at high schools may be interested in a new online education booklet for students. Titled "Prevention: A Young Person's Guide to Keeping Animals Safe and Healthy," the booklet helps teach young people the basic medical principles—farm isolation, traffic control, hygiene, and sanitation—to keep animals safe and healthy. The booklet was developed by The Ohio State University Extension's Veterinary Preventive Medicine Department, in conjunction with the University of Maryland.

The booklet provides four chapters on the basic medical principles and explains how to reduce the spread of disease when animals come into direct or indirect contact with other animals, people, or equipment from outside the farm. Suggested group projects are available at the end of each chapter.

"The online booklet fills an important educational gap in equipping future poultry and livestock producers with fresh, enduring insights into the fundamentals of animal health and the prevention of both common and unusual diseases," said Jeffrey D. Workman, one of the project's authors.